Bollettieri's Student Stories: Agassi

Andre Agassi didn't just transform the sport of tennis with his style of play and on-court achievements; the International Tennis Hall of Famer also changed the sport's fashion game as we know it.

And fans heared it from the man himself last week as the former world No. 1 revisited some of his most iconic serves— not aces, but 'fits—in a video posted to his Instagram account, revealing that he still thinks fondly of his boldest sartorial stylings even today.

Read more: Andre Agassi and Yannick Noah herald new era for the Laver Cup

Agassi's countdown begins with his self-described "pirate look" from the 1995 Australian Open, where he donned baggy patterned shorts, a loose white and burgundy-striped shirt, a matching banada, hoop earring, and goatee for complete privateer vibes. The 54-year-old confessed that the look wouldn't have been out of place in Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean franchise which debuted nearly a decade later (and the clip even offered a side-by-side of Agassi and Johnny Depp's character Jack Sparrow, the lead in the film), but he performed his own swashbuckling heist in the final that year in Melbourne.

In his Australian Open debut, a memorable occasion that the tournament itself dubbed "a blockbuster" that ushered in an era of change, Agassi won his third career Grand Slam singles title by beating top seed and longtime rival Pete Sampras from a set down, and also saved two set points in the third set of the 4-6, 6-1, 7-6(6), 6-4 title match.

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While that was a watershed moment for Agassi's career, the look he tabbed at No. 2 in his countdown came when he was a fresh-faced 18-year-old still storming onto the scene: the acid-wash acid jean shorts that Nike made for him for the 1988 US Open.

"Tennis hadn't quite seen anybody wearing anything but white with their shirts tucked in" at the time, Agassi said, and it's arguably the look that has been the most enduring. The men's fashion magazine *GQ* once even wrote: "What's remarkable about the style choice is that he was actually able to compete in such a restrictive fabric—this was, after all, before stretch denim became the norm."

Agassi repeated the "jorts" multiple times, and his top pick featured them, too. His black denim shorts with hot-pink tights, a matching pink-print top and headband, and a pair of Nike Air Tech Challenge 2s famously drew the ire of International Tennis Federation president Philippe Chatrier, also the head of the French tennis federation, at Roland Garros in 1990.

Chatrier said that the time that several members of the tournament organizing committee were “very disturbed by the dress of Agassi, for example.”

Chatrier said that the time that several members of the tournament organizing committee were “very disturbed by the dress of Agassi, for example.”

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"At the time, [he] was thinking about bringing in a dress code," Agassi recalled, "so I did what any nobel person would do and I called him a bozo in the press conference. That was a little bit regrettable, but it was an honest reaction to someone telling me what I had to wear."